Wichita company hopes to have big impact on mitigating COVID-19 on commercial flights
A Wichita-based company could have a remedy for an aviation industry that’s been thrashed by the global pandemic.
PWI sales manager Eric Dahlinger said the Wichita company hopes to have its ultraviolet light technology, which it’s calling Biotek Shield, aboard commercial flights during the first quarter of 2021. Biotek Shield’s aim is to neutralize 99.9999% of pathogens that cause such diseases as COVID-19, West Nile and tuberculosis.
The company, which primarily engineers and manufactures general aviation LED lighting for customers like Textron Aviation, started to research the idea of UVC a few months ago. Dahlinger said that when they are finished, it will be a $3 to $5 million investment that he hopes will restore confidence in flying again.
“UVC is not brand new, but putting those together inside of a commercial aircraft is the thing that makes it unique,” Dahlinger said. “UVC is so effective against viruses and all those pathogens that you don’t want sitting inside of a metal tube, breathing.”
Hospitals use UVC to neutralize viruses.
Dahlinger said articles in aviation magazines attribute the current large drop in flights to a lack of confidence. The passenger count among U.S. airlines is down 70% from last year, according to trade group Airlines for America.
Dahlinger thinks the Biotek Shield will snowball confidence.
The device will connect to the air conditioning system and aims to neutralize bacteria and viruses as air circulates through the system.
“Viruses aren’t alive. You’re not really killing a virus,” Dahlinger said. “You are scrambling its DNA so it can’t replicate.”
The device is first being fitted for the Boeing 737, with plans to expand the design to other commercial aircraft.
Other companies make UVC systems for aviation, but PWI’s will be more effective in the percentage of pathogens it kills and its installation time, Dahlinger said, adding that some systems can take weeks to install but theirs can be done in under four hours.
The retail price depends on how much UVC light the device needs to be effective, which will be discovered when it is tested, Dahlinger said.
PWI has been talking with two companies, including one in Kansas City, to test its device’s effectiveness on COVID-19. A UVC system isn’t a difficult device to make, Dahlinger said, but it requires a lot of math to make sure the system is as effective as they want it to be.
PWI was founded in 1963 and has roughly 40 employees. It started a sister company, called by Aero Biotek Inc., for its device. PWI also plans to work on another UVC device that would help neutralize pathogens in the aircraft cabin, providing an additional layer of protection.